Love low-fi? 3D-print your own vinyl records




I can't bear to part with my record collection. It's got gems like Steely Dan's "The Royal Scam" that sound better on a turntable and amplifier than on MP3.


Maybe analog sound can feel better because we're analog creatures. Whatever the reason, vinyl's recent popularity has led to events like Record Store Day and DIY projects like Amanda Ghassaei's 3D-printed records.


An editorial staffer at Instructables.com, Ghassaei managed to lay down digital audio files on 3D-printed 33 rpm records that she played on a standard turntable.


The results, as heard in the video below, sound about as clear as phonograph cylinders from the 1880s. The audio output has a sampling rate of 11kHz and 5- to 6-bit resolution, but tunes like Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" are easily recognizable.





Ghassaei went to TechShop in San Francisco and created the records on a large-scale Objet Connex500 printer, which has a particularly high 600dpi X and Y resolution and a print layer accuracy of 16 microns.


It produced records with grooves that are wider and deeper than factory-made vinyls, so each side can only fit five or six minutes of sound. Check out a video of Ghassaei removing the white resin records from the printer, pizza-style, and scraping off the residue here.


She notes that her 3D-printed copy of Daft Punk's "Around the World" had such a heavy bass sound that it threw the needle off and forced her to revise the conversion algorithm. Meanwhile, you can download her other printed songs like New Order's "Blue Monday" here.


"The Objet still at least an order of magnitude or two away from the resolution of a real vinyl record," Ghassaei writes. "My hope with this project was that despite the lack of vinyl-quality precision, I would still be able to produce something recognizable by approximating the groove shape as accurately as possible with the tools I had."


Her homespun records are only prototypes and who knows how good they'll get. Could this lead to a DIY K-tel?




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Pictures: Fungi Get Into the Holiday Spirit


Photograph courtesy Stephanie Mounaud, J. Craig Venter Institute

Mounaud combined different fungi to create a Santa hat and spell out a holiday message.

Different fungal grow at different rates, so Mounaud's artwork rarely lasts for long. There's only a short window of time when they actually look like what they're suppose to.

"You do have to keep that in perspective when you're making these creations," she said.

For example, the A. flavus fungi that she used to write this message from Santa grows very quickly. "The next day, after looking at this plate, it didn't say 'Ho Ho Ho.' It said 'blah blah blah,'" Mounaud said.

The message also eventually turned green, which was the color she was initially after. "It was a really nice green, which is what I was hoping for. But yellow will do," she said.

The hat was particularly challenging. The fungus used to create it "was troubling because at different temperatures it grows differently. The pigment in this one forms at room temperature but this type of growth needed higher temperatures," Mounaud said.

Not all fungus will grow nicely together. For example, in the hat, "N. fischeri [the brim and ball] did not want to play nice with the P. marneffei [red part of hat] ... so they remained slightly separated."

Published December 21, 2012

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NRA Chief LaPierre: 'Call Me Crazy'













National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre fired back at his critics today, defending his proposal to put armed guards in every school in the country as a way to prevent future tragedies like the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that took the lives of 20 children and six adults.


"If it's crazy to call for armed officers in our schools to protect our children, then call me crazy," the head of the powerful gun lobby said today on NBC's "Meet the Press."


LaPierre and the NRA came under harsh criticism this week for their response to the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.


After keeping silent for a week, except for a release announcing that the organization would make "meaningful contributions" to the search for answers to the problem of gun violence, LaPierre held what critics described as a "tone deaf" press conference in which he blamed the media, video games and Hollywood for the recent shootings, and suggested that the answer to gun violence was more guns.


Gun control advocates argue that a federal assault weapons ban is necessary to curbing gun violence. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who helped pass an assault weapons ban in 1996 is renewing efforts to pass similar legislation as the original ban expired in 2004.






PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images











National Rifle Association News Conference Interrupted by Protesters Watch Video











Critics Slam NRA for Proposing Armed School Guards Watch Video





"I think that is a phony piece of legislation and I do not believe it will pass for this reason: it's all built on lies," LaPierre said today.


LaPierre and many pro-gun advocates like him argue that assault weapons bans aren't effective and that violent criminals are solely to blame.


INFOGRAPHIC: Guns in America: By The Numbers


In today's interview, LaPierre pointed out that the Columbine High School shooting occurred after the assault weapons ban passed, but he failed to mention that the shooters obtained the guns they used illegally though a gun show.


He also did not discuss the fact that there was an armed guard on duty at the school when Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold killed 13 people there before killing themselves.


Several senators watching LaPierre's interview had strong reactions.


"He says the only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun. What about stopping the bad guy from getting the gun in the first place?" said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on NBC's "Meet the Press."


Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who was also on the show, said that he open to discussing increased school security but warned against a quick rush to ban assault weapons.


"I don't suggest we ban every movie with a gun in it and every video that's violent and I don't suggest that you take my right buy an AR-15 away from me because I don't think it will work," Graham said on NBC's "Meet the Press."


New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he didn't think having armed guards in schools was a good idea, though the Republican said he was "not commenting on the NRA proposal in particular."


"I am not someone who believes that having multiple, armed guards, in every school, is something that will enhance the learning environment, and that is our first responsibility inside a school, is the learning environment, you don't want to make this an armed camp for kids, I don't think that is a positive example for children," he said. "We should be able to figure out some other ways to enhance safety."


Earlier this week protesters from the group "Code Pink" snuck into the NRA press conference and held up a sign that read "NRA Blood on Your Hand."






Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012







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CIA chief decries torture in Osama bin Laden hunt movie






WASHINGTON: Acting CIA director Michael Morell said that "Zero Dark Thirty," the Hollywood take on the hunt for Osama bin Laden, exaggerates the importance of information obtained by harsh interrogations.

The movie by Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow tells the story of the decade-long search after September 11, 2001 that climaxed in last year's dramatic and deadly raid in May on the Al-Qaeda terror leader's hideout in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The film shows US personnel using harsh interrogation techniques like water-boarding -- a method widely seen as torture -- to force captives to speak. The information obtained was crucial, according to the movie, in piecing together the trail that eventually led to bin Laden.

Not so, Morell said in a message to Central Intelligence Agency employees released to AFP on Saturday.

The movie "creates the strong impression that the enhanced interrogation techniques that were part of our former detention and interrogation program were the key to finding bin Laden. That impression is false."

Morell's message, sent to the employees on Friday, states that "multiple streams of intelligence" led CIA analysts to conclude that bin Laden was hiding in Abbottabad.

He acknowledged that "some" of the information "came from detainees subjected to enhanced techniques. But there were many other sources as well."

The controversial techniques were banned in 2009 by President Barack Obama.

Morell said that "whether enhanced interrogation techniques were the only timely and effective way to obtain information from those detainees, as the film suggests, is a matter of debate that cannot and never will be definitively resolved."

Morell is widely believed to be a top candidate for the job of CIA director after the resignation of David Petreaus, America's most celebrated military leader in a generation. Petreaus stepped down in November after admitting to an extra-marital affair with his biographer.

Morell's message, first reported by The New York Times, echoes a statement decrying the "Zero Dark Thirty" interrogation scenes signed by three senators, including Republican John McCain, himself a prisoner of war and torture victim during the Vietnam War.

In a letter to the head of Sony Pictures, McCain -- the 2008 Republican presidential candidate -- and Democratic senators Diane Feinstein and Carl Levin wrote that the movie "clearly implies that the CIA's coercive interrogation techniques were effective" in obtaining information that would lead to bin Laden.

"We have reviewed CIA records and know that this is incorrect," the senators wrote. "We believe that you have an obligation to state that the role of torture in the hunt for (Bin Laden) is not based on the facts, but rather part of the film's fictional narrative."

However two CIA officials active when suspects were tortured disputed those assertions.

Jose Rodriguez, who oversaw the CIA's counterterrorism operations when "harsh interrogation" methods were in use, wrote in the Washington Post in April that the path leading to bin Laden "started in a CIA black site ... and stemmed from information obtained from hardened terrorists who agreed to tell us some (but not all) of what they knew after undergoing harsh but legal interrogation methods."

And former CIA director Michael Hayden wrote in a Wall Street Journal in June 2011 that a "crucial component" of information that eventually led to bin Laden came from three CIA prisoners, "all of whom had been subjected to some form of enhanced interrogation."

Hayden claimed that he learned the information when, in 2007, he was first briefed about pursuing bin Laden through his courier network.

But interim CIA director Morell emphasized the film, a likely Oscar contender, "takes significant artistic licence, while portraying itself as being historically accurate."

"What I want you to know is that Zero Dark Thirty is a dramatization, not a realistic portrayal of the facts.

"CIA interacted with the filmmakers through our Office of Public Affairs but, as is true with any entertainment project with which we interact, we do not control the final product."

- AFP/jc



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Here comes Microsoft Surface Pro, 64 bits and all



Surface with Windows 8 Pro starts at an ultrabook-like $899.

Surface with Windows 8 Pro starts at an ultrabook-like $899.



(Credit:
Microsoft)


Microsoft's
Windows 8 Pro version of the Surface will arrive soon, giving consumers probably one the highest performing
tablets to date.


Microsoft is already dropping not-so-subtle hints that the device is coming "early in 2013." And now it appears to have made its debut at the FCC.


Let's look at what else Microsoft is saying about the 2-pound tablet that sets it apart from the current Surface RT tablet.

  • 64-bit computing in a tablet: Surface with Windows 8 Pro is "a 64-bit tablet PC." That's not a trivial point. You get all of the goodness of 64-bit computing via Intel's power-efficient Core i5 Ivy Bridge processors. Surface RT, on the other hand, is 32-bit only.
  • Security: Support for the same level of security you can expect with any corporate Windows laptop. And Microsoft includes sBitLocker, which encrypts your hard drive's data.
  • Pen: It includes a pen. That's really a holdover from the
    Windows 7 slates but something that some business customers still want.
  • Mini DisplayPort/display: This allows connection to large high-resolution displays (e.g., Apple Cinema Display). That said, the Surface Pro's 10.6-inch (16:9) 1,920x1,080-pixel display is already the same resolution of some desktop displays. Other ports include a full-size USB 3.0, microSDXC card slot, headset jack, and Cover port.

And we may already be getting a sneak preview of the Surface Pro courtesy of CNET's review of the Acer Iconia W700 tablet.

Like the Surface Pro, the W700 is a 2-pound Windows 8 tablet that packs an Ivy Bridge Core i5 processor and a 1,920x1,080 display.

Here's what CNET said: "In our benchmark tests, the Iconia W700 performed similarly to other Core i5-3317U Windows 8 laptops and convertibles, or a little behind. It's well-suited for everyday use, from HD video streaming to social media, to working on office tasks."

And battery life? One has to wonder whether Microsoft will be able to achieve the stellar battery of the W700. "The system ran for a very impressive 7 hours and 19 minutes," according to CNET. Yeah, that is impressive. In fact, Acer is beginning to brush up against the staying power you'd find in a high-end tablet with a power-efficient ARM chip.

But that may be too optimistic. Microsoft, in effect, pre-announced the Surface Pro's battery life the other day. Let's just hope that it trends closer to an ultrabook with a tolerable run-down time. This is a tablet, after all.

Let's close on a high note, though. Early this year, I had a chance to use the Intel Core i5-based Samsung tablet with Windows 8 Developer Preview (the same unit handed out to Microsoft Build conference attendees in 2011). I was immediately wowed by its speed. At the time, I felt it was much quicker than the iPad 2 I had been using every day.

If the Surface Pro can replicate that experience, it will attract power users looking for a snappy Windows 8 tablet.

And, remember, the Surface Pro will run all of those Windows 7 applications, too. That, alone, will make it attractive to business users.

See full Surface with Windows 8 Pro specifications.


With the recent release of the Iconia W700 tablet, Acer may giving us a taste of the Surface Pro.

With the recent release of the Iconia W700 tablet, Acer may be giving us a taste of the Surface Pro.



(Credit:
CNET)

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Urban Advocates Say New Gun Control Talk Overdue













For years, voices have cried in the urban wilderness: We need to talk about gun control.



Yet the guns blazed on.



It took a small-town slaughter for gun control to become a political priority. Now, decades' worth of big-city arguments against easy access to guns are finally being heard, because an unstable young man invaded an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., with a military-style assault rifle and 30-bullet magazines. Twenty young children and six adults were slain.



President Barack Obama called the tragedy a "wake-up call." Vice President Joe Biden met Thursday with Obama's cabinet and law-enforcement officers from around the country to launch a task force on reducing gun violence. Lawmakers who have long resisted gun control are saying something must be done.



Such action is energizing those who have sought to reduce urban gun violence. Donations are up in some places; other leaders have been working overtime due to this unprecedented moment.



The moment also is causing some to reflect on the sudden change of heart. Why now? Why weren't we moved to act by the killing of so many other children, albeit one by one, in urban areas?



Certainly, Newtown is a special case, 6- and 7-year-olds riddled with bullets inside the sanctuary of a classroom. Even in a nation rife with violence, where there have been three other mass slayings since July and millions enjoy virtual killing via video games, the nature of this tragedy is shocking.










Critics Slam NRA for Proposing Armed School Guards Watch Video









Gun Violence Victims, Survivors Share Thoughts After Newtown Massacre Watch Video






But still: "There's a lot of talk now about we have to protect our children. We have to protect all of our children, not just the ones living in the suburbs," said Tammerlin Drummond, a columnist for the Oakland Tribune.



In her column Monday, Drummond wrote about 7-year-old Heaven Sutton of Chicago, who was standing next to her mother selling candy when she was killed in the crossfire of a gang shootout. Also in Chicago, which has been plagued by a recent spike in gun violence: 6-year-old Aaliyah Shell was caught in a drive-by while standing on her front porch; and 13-year-old Tyquan Tyler was killed when a someone in a car shot into a group of youths outside a party.



Wrote Drummond: "It has taken the murders of 20 babies and six adults in an upper-middle class neighborhood in Connecticut to achieve what thousands of gun fatalities in urban communities all over this country could not."



So again: What took so long? The answers are complicated by many factors: resignation to urban violence, even among some of those who live there; the assumption that cities are dangerous and small towns safe; the idea that some urban victims place themselves in harm's way.



In March, the Children's Defense Fund issued a report titled "Protect Children, Not Guns 2012." It analyzed the latest federal data and counted 299 children under age 10 killed by guns in 2008 and 2009. That figure included 173 preschool-age children.



Black children and teens accounted for 45 percent of all child and teen gun deaths, even though they were only 15 percent of the child/teen population.



"Every child's life is sacred and it is long past time that we protect it," said CDF president Marian Wright Edelman in the report.



It got almost no press coverage — until nine months later, when Newtown happened.



Tim Stevens, founder and chairman of the Black Political Empowerment Project in Pittsburgh, has been focusing on urban gun violence since 2007, when he said Pennsylvania was declared the worst state for black-on-black violence.





Read More..

Today on New Scientist: 21 December 2012







Cadaver stem cells offer new hope of life after death

Stem cells can be extracted from bone marrow five days after death to be used in life-saving treatments



Apple's patents under fire at US patent office

The tech firm is skating on thin ice with some of the patents that won it a $1 billion settlement against Samsung



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The world's highest mountains look set to become home to a huge number of dams - good news for clean energy but bad news for biodiversity



Astrophile: Black hole exposed as a dwarf in disguise

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Blind juggling robot keeps a ball in the air for hours

The robot, which has no visual sensors, can juggle a ball flawlessly by analysing its trajectory



Studio sessions show how Bengalese finch stays in tune

This songbird doesn't need technological aids to stay in tune - and it's smart enough to not worry when it hears notes that are too far off to be true



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2012 Flash Fiction winner: Sleep by Richard Clarke

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Africa is where humanity began, where we took our first steps, but those interested in the latest cool stuff on our origins should now look to Asia instead



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Read More..

Hugh Grant wins 'substantial' phone-hacking damages






LONDON: Hugh Grant has accepted a "substantial sum" from Rupert Murdoch's British tabloid publisher over phone hacking by the News of the World, the British actor's lawyer said on Friday.

The "Four Weddings and a Funeral" star will donate the damages to the Hacked Off campaign against press intrusion.

"My aim has always been to ensure that cash is redistributed from Mr Murdoch to help those his company has harassed," Grant said in a statement through the campaign group.

His lawyer Mark Thomson said the damages would be transferred to Hacked Off as soon Grant, 52, receives the payment, with a statement made in open court in the New Year.

"Hugh Grant has today settled his claims for damages and other legal remedies arising out of the unlawful activities of News of the World journalists and others over a number of years," Thomson said in a statement.

"News Group Newspapers (NGN) have agreed to pay him a substantial sum by way of damages. He has instructed us to donate all of his damages plus an additional payment from him to the Hacked Off campaign for a free and accountable media."

Grant, one of the most high-profile celebrity victims of phone-hacking by the News of the World, has become a vocal campaigner for press reforms since media baron Murdoch was forced to close down the 168-year-old tabloid weekly over the scandal in 2011.

Revelations that the newspaper's staff accessed the voicemail messages of a murdered schoolgirl, as well as dozens of celebrities, politicians and sport stars, had prompted a wave of public disgust.

The scandal sparked a judicial inquiry into press ethics and three police investigations.

NGN has since paid compensation to dozens of people, including actors Jude Law and Sienna Miller, footballer Ashley Cole and former deputy prime minister John Prescott.

A Hacked Off spokesman said: "At the outset of his legal action, Hugh Grant announced that any damages would be going to Hacked Off to be spent on providing support for victims of phone hacking and other press abuse, especially those who don't have access to expensive lawyers.

"Mr Grant is one of a growing list of donors who are helping to ensure that the campaign is well-funded for the battle ahead, and can continue to represent people who would otherwise be without a voice in the debate."

Hacked Off is campaigning for the recommendations of judge Brian Leveson's inquiry into press ethics to be implemented in full, including a new independent regulator with statutory backing.

- AFP/jc



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Make use of the built-in VPN service in OS X



If you access your computer remotely, then services like Apple's "Back to my
Mac" have their conveniences; however, this and similar services are useful for individual machines only. On the other hand, if you have more than one device on your home network that you might wish to directly access, then using a virtual private network is beneficial as it places your system on your home's network so you can communicate with devices as if you were at home.


Often the implementation of this is to use a hardware-based VPN (likely built into your home router) to configure the remote connectivity to the network, or use a server software package like Apple's OS X Server to set up a VPN service. However, starting with 10.5 Leopard, the client version of OS X also contains a VPN server that can be activated and configured to manage remote connections to your network.




VPN Server Configurator auto-config

The VPN Server Configurator tool has a quick option to automatically scan your network and select a starting configuration to use.



(Credit:
Screenshot by Topher Kessler/CNET)


The VPN service in OS X is the "vpnd" daemon, that can be configured using the OS X Terminal and access to various hidden files in the system; however, there is a third-party utility called VPN Server Configurator that will allow you to set up the VPN service on OS X 10.5 or later.


While this and many more server features can be implemented in current Mac systems by purchasing the OS X Server package from the Mac App Store for $20, currently only the Mountain Lion server is available so if you have an older version of OS X (for example, on an older Mac that you would like to use as a VPN server) then you might find it difficult to purchase and install the OS X Server software.


The VPN Server Configurator contains a number of options for setting the VPN ports, IP address ranges, what users accounts on the current system are authorized to access the VPN service, and many other details. It also has a quick auto-config button that will analyze your LAN settings and give you a starting VPN configuration to work with.


VPN Server Configuration is a $9 purchase, so for OS X 10.8 users it may be worth some conveniences over Apple's $20 OS X Server package, but will likely be very beneficial to those wishing to set up older Mac as local VPN servers.




Questions? Comments? Have a fix? Post them below or !
Be sure to check us out on Twitter and the CNET Mac forums.


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